Food poisoning incidents in student hostels on rise

ADILABAD: Several incidents of food poisoning in hostels and of students falling sick are being reported from erstwhile Adilabad district. Unhygienic conditions in the kitchen and mess and use of substandard ingredients, as well as the use of polluted water in food preparations, are cited as the main reasons.

Parents are worried this will affect the health of the students and that they might lose their concentration in studies. Following such incidents, some students have opted to go back to their homes and parents are taking their children home for a few days.       

Lack of supervision in the preparation of food and on the quality of vegetables and non-vegetarian items being used in preparations is a major cause of food poisoning, parents say.

Some students of IIIT Basar fell sick after taking food in which, midway through the meals, they found a dead frog and a cockroach. 

The institution has formed a three-member committee to look into the lapses and come out with suggestions to improve the cooking conditions in the hostel. More than 8,000 students are studying at the Basar IIIT.

As many as 60 girl students of Adilabad Rural Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya( KGBV) had fallen sick after having their breakfast. They developed loose motion and vomiting, signs of food poisoning.  

It was found during an inspection by the authorities that the cooking was done under unhygienic conditions.

There is both inefficiency and attempts at siphoning off of the money by the agencies involved in the running of the mess. This resulted in the serving of poor quality food to students and incidents of food poisoning.

Basar IIIT has been in the news for serving poor quality food to students as students repeatedly lodged complaints to the authorities but in vain.

This apart, government schools and hostels have remained closed for many months due to the Covid pandemic and this disrupted the mess systems. The number of admissions has increased in government residential schools. After the pandemic, most parents were unable to afford the high fee at private schools and took admissions for their children in government institutions.

As a result, there is no proper accommodation for students at the residential schools. Some of these are run from private buildings.